Zero Calorie Foods: Raspberry-Chipotle Ranch Salad Dressing

This article is about zero calorie foods. More specifically, it’s about salad dressings that can serve as no calorie foods. These salad dressings can be a great part of a low calorie diet. Since the recipes contain no carbohydrates, they’re also great for a low carb diet. By creating a big salad with healthy foods like fresh greens, tomatoes, broccoli florets, bell peppers, boiled shrimp, tuna, and/or diced chicken, you can make lots of low calorie meals that are tasty, nutritious, and delicious. You know how it is – you create otherwise low calorie meals comprised of healthy foods, but then you drown it in high calorie, high fat creamy dressings. If your dressing is a zero calorie food, however, you can avoid the hundreds of calories contained in the dressings. And if you’re following a low carb diet and aren’t concerned so much about fat and calories, you can add cheese, boiled eggs, and bacon bits to your salad.

Okay, you’re probably wondering how something edible can be a no calorie food, right? I’m not sure how they do it, but Walden Farms has a lot of calorie free foods on the market, and I’m a big fan. The only supermarket we had in town that carried Walden Farms products closed down, so now I have to order my 0 calorie foods from Walden Farms online. I use the products just about every day, usually using them as ingredients to create other low calorie food and low carb foods. Use my recipes, or create your own by adding your favorite ingredients.

What you’ll need:

½ cup Walden Farms chipotle ranch dressing

½ cup Walden Farms raspberry vinaigrette dressing

1 tablespoon Splenda (or more, depending on how sweet you like your dressing)

1 teaspoon onion powder

Minced garlic, to taste

Directions: Combine all ingredients and chill in the fridge. Drizzle over a tossed or chef salad, or use it as a dipping sauce for chicken strips, wings, or shrimp.

The Walden Farms chipotle ranch dressing is very tasty by itself, but it’s thin. If you’re on a low carb diet and aren’t too worried about fat grams, you can use the bottled chipotle ranch dressing as a base for a creamier ranch dressing. Such dressings would still qualify as low carb foods. Here’s a dressing I often make as part of a low carb diet:

Creamy chipotle ranch dressing

What you’ll need:

2/3 cup Walden Farms chipotle ranch dressing

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

2 teaspoons fresh chopped parsley

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon vinegar

½ teaspoon minced garlic

Directions: Combine all ingredients with a whisk, blender, or food processor and chill. Of course, this is a great salad dressing, but it’s also good as a dip for healthy foods like raw veggies. The sour cream in the recipe has just one gram of carbs, the vinegar has less than a gram of carbs, and the mayonnaise contains no carbs.